Garfield High School Teachers Refuse to Give Students Standardized MAP Test

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Well-connected Melissa Westbrook breaks the story that teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle have unanimously refused to comply with the Seattle School District’s mandate to administer the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test.

“Our teachers have come together and agree that the MAP test is not good for our students, nor is it an appropriate or useful tool in measuring progress. Additionally, students don’t take it seriously. It produces specious results, and wreaks havoc on limited school resources during the weeks the test is administered.”

In addition, results of the MAP tests will be used by district officials to help evaluate the effectiveness of teachers who give the test. “Our teachers feel strongly that this type of evaluative tool is unfair based on the abundance of problems with the exam, the content, and the statistical insignificance of the students’ scores,” said Ms. McBride.

Garfield’s reading specialist, Mallory Clarke, said teachers made this decision only after intensive internal discussions and years of experience with the MAP test.

The MAP Test is part of the District’s top-down plan called “Excellence for All” developed by McKinsey and Company Associates in 2008. The November 2012 District Scorecard shows Seattle is not on target to meet even one of the 23 goals established in “Excellence for All.” Read more about it here.

Mandating the MAP test shows why top-down dictates don’t work in education. Central office mandates don’t respect teachers as professionals who know how to do their jobs and who care deeply about children. Every child is different. Only the teacher in the classroom and the principal, who know the students by their first names, know what each child needs to succeed.

That is why principals should be allowed to be real community education leaders, with control over the school’s budget, hiring and firing, over which tests to use, and over the school schedule and educational program. Principals should be allowed to give bonuses to reward the best teachers and motivate others to improve. This is why teachers should be freed from central district mandates so they can actually teach their students. Only then can principals and teachers be fairly held accountable to parents and the public for improving results.

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Liv Finne is Director of WPC's Center for Education. Prior to that position she served as an adjunct scholar focusing on education policy issues, authoring in-depth studies including An Overview of Public School Funding in Washington and Early Learning Proposals in Washington State. She is the author of Washington Policy Center's Education Reform Plan: Eight Practical Ways to Reverse the Decline of Public Schools, Learning Online: An Assessment of Online Public Education Programs, Review of Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Programs for Child Care Services, and more. Liv holds a law degree from Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College. She retired from civil litigation practice to raise two children and work as business partner for a small business she owns with her husband. Liv is passionate about improving Washington’s public education system.